Network plans for voice, data, and other communications networks are typically developed by network planning personnel based on demand, cost, traffic patterns, load balancing, and other factors. The output of the network planning process is usually a collection of route plans each specifying one or more routes between two circuit end points in the network and including any intermediate points the circuit will pass through between its end points. Optimal utilization of available network capacity is desired. Accordingly, once the network has been fully planned, separate provisioning personnel use the route plans to design circuits such that the network, as it is actually provisioned, matches the network plan as closely as possible. The circuit designers must take into account a number of possibly competing considerations to arrive at a design based on their experience and judgment that, it is hoped, satisfies the considerations as optimally as possible. The requirement that designers be intimately familiar with networks may often limit the ability of network providers to transfer personnel into or out of design positions, hampering flexibility within these organizations.
Even with the availability of prior software tools, these manual circuit design techniques have been relatively difficult, slow, inconsistent, and otherwise inefficient in their implementation. When facilities, equipment, or other circuit elements associated with an existing circuit are added, deleted, modified, or otherwise acted upon, the design must be re-validated using the same inefficient processes. Perhaps just as important, there are few if any controls on the manner in which a circuit is designed. The design, and any aspects of the design that violate the corresponding plan but are permitted to exist in the network, are left almost exclusively to the designer. As an example, the designer might choose to assign a route plan to a circuit despite the fact, or perhaps without knowledge of the fact, that the assignment violates one or more diversity rules for the circuit being designed. If made erroneously, such decisions may undermine the reliability of the network and result in substantial losses to the network provider and its customers. Prior techniques do not readily allow network planning intelligence to be incorporated into the route selection process. As communications needs continue to expand, and network providers seek ways to respond more rapidly, consistently, and efficiently to growing demand for circuits, these and other problems are exacerbated. These and other deficiencies have made prior techniques inadequate for the needs of many network providers.